380 Loaded with Sm Rifle Primers ???

[Russ in WY]

Friend of mine by mistake loaded a bunch of 380 pistol cases with Sm rifle primers. I have offered him my Universal depriming die to remove them. However He was wondering with a Min bullseye charge & light cast bullet if there would be any determent in shooting a few ??? He ask to remain [unknown] not on this board any how.. What Say You, Gentlemen ??? TIA Russ.

[Ben]

I won't make a comment about pressure.

He may however run into misfires as the cup is thicker on a small rifle primer.

[2ndAmendmentNut]

It sounds like you friend is asking, “what’s the worst that could happen?” A very stupid question when it comes to reloading. We are all tempted to think that it is “just” a 380, but keep in mind the cheapest thing that can be destroyed is the gun. My advice pull the bullets and deprime them.

[2ndAmendmentNut]

Also even if it does not hurt the gun, he “could” enlarge the primer pockets enough to make the brass unsafe to reload again.

[deltaenterprizes]

It won't hurt a thing if they are not maxium powder charges. Federal used to advertise their small rifle primers suitable for use as small pistol magnum primers. The little extra priming compound will just make the powder burn more completely.

[felix]

Or much less completely depending on boolit ignition resistance. ... felix

[cheese1566]

Is it worth the risk?

Your hand in the emergency room and Dr. bills compared to some lost cases...

[Recluse]

Two things bother me here.

One, you have to be pretty careless to mix rifle primers up with pistol primers. Sorry, but in over thirty years of reloading, I've never even come close to mixing up primers.

Two, now that the mistake has been made and caught, the reloader wants to know if there is any risk.

The question he needs to be asking is: "How many things can go WRONG with this mistake as opposed to the only thing that can go RIGHT?" (which would be that the rounds fire okay and the bullets make it out of the pointy end of the gun.)

To me, it's a no-brainer--but then again, we're moving close and closer to a brainless society.

:coffee:

[mike in co]

well i think you guys are over cautions in this case.
first he is in a 380...working pressure is 18kpsi....and wiht a cast boolit..lite load...not likely anywhere near that.
so what is the load, what is the boolit ?

kinda hard to say safe with out that info...

for the record small rifle have been used in several pistol loads.

so tell us what he plans on doing.

( oal of .88 with an 88 gr lrn is about 15k wiht 3 of be and 900 fos froma 3.5 in bbl)

[Mugs]

I load every thing with a small primer with Rem. 7 1/2's. Never had a problem.
Mugs
IHMSA 5940L

[DLCTEX]

I would shoot them.

[pdawg_shooter]

I havent bought a small pistol primer in years. All Small rifle for me. Reduce your load an work up like you would when you change any component.

[2ndAmendmentNut]

Someone who makes this kind of mistake then fortunately catches his mistake before he shoots them, but then against the advice of every load manual on the planet ask the question ,“can I shoot these?” will probably end up shooting them anyway. Maybe it will be fine to shoot them, maybe not. My advice remains the same as above, pull the bullets and deprime them. That way you will only loose a little time, some primers, and a splash of Bullseye.

P.S. Who is the manufacturer of the 380 these rounds were intended for?

[jcwit]

Min bullseye charge & light cast bullet

Shoot them, no problem. Worse case here is failure to fire because of harder cup. Small pistol, small rifle will interchange, and no you won't enlarge the primer pocket. If you were talking about an semiauto rifle with floating firing pin and using small pistol primers, thats a different story.

Also not the same with large rifle primers in pistol cases as they are longer and will not seat under flush with the case head.

[Rockydog]

Unless he's going to do something to make the primers inert before depriming I'd worry a lot more about the wisdom and safety of depriming live primers than shooting the loaded ammo. "Let's just run those puppies up into a die (in effect a chamber) and stab away at that little anvil thingy that makes primers detonate." RD

[Russ in WY]

The Rest of the Story..There were a bunch of cases primed ,however only 6 or 8 rnds were ever loaded. The primed cases were deprimed & primers marked for {Practice Only}. The loaded rnds were pulled ,dumped & also deprimed. As to the depriming of live primers, it takes a very sharp blow to ignite them. A slow even pressure to push them out is relatively safe. Ear & eye protection is always a Safety Option to be practiced. I have had the unfortunate occurrence of getting a primer on edge in my 2-550's and partially seating them, can't turn the shell plate. So without disassembling the shell plate mechanism ,I crush them flat to remove the case & punch out the flattened primer with out any dire results. To prove the sharp blow theory , take a primer to your shop vise [4" or bigger] crush it as flat as you can, nothing happens, take a hammer a rap the side of the vise, [Ear & Eye protection here] & you will get a very loud report. My 2¢ Russ.

[jcwit]

Unless he's going to do something to make the primers inert before depriming I'd worry a lot more about the wisdom and safety of depriming live primers than shooting the loaded ammo. "Let's just run those puppies up into a die (in effect a chamber) and stab away at that little anvil thingy that makes primers detonate." RD

Just like Russ sayes above, primers are set off by a SHARP blow, or call it an IMPACT. Pushing a primer out using a press causes no harm, there're even ready to be used again believe it ir not. Further more if perchance one would go off "which is near to impossible" so what, its all contained whitin the sizing die, its not going to expload and ram the handle down and no parts will go flying anywhere.

If reloading were this dangerous the lawers would have put all the reloading mfg.'s out of business years ago.

Think of the little Lee Reloading kit that seats primers with a hand mallet. And yes I have a couple of primers go off with one of those tools, and lo and behold no injuries.

You're in much more danger driving to and from the range or going to the gun show or just driving to work than pushing out a few primers, which aren't going to hurt anything even if perchance they would happen to go off.